RURAL ENGLAND OF TO-DAY 57 



takes his part in local government. In the 

 hierarchy of office he thus occupies a middle 

 position between the landlord, who sits on the 

 County Council, and the labourer who cannot 

 drive to the market town, but who can trudge 

 to the meeting of the Parish Council in the 

 village schoolroom. The standard of living 

 which, as a general rule, he tries to maintain is 

 something between that of the gentry and that 

 of the "common people." In the Northern 

 and North Midland counties a somewhat 

 humbler mode of life prevails ; but the state- 

 ment is broadly true if an average be taken 

 over the whole country. 



Two pleasant characteristics of the English 

 farmer are his open-handed hospitality and 

 his readiness, however deep-rooted his pre- 

 judices, to appreciate in a political opponent 

 that indefinable British quality connoted by 

 the phrase " good fellow " or " good sports- 

 man." Many of our tenant-farmers indulge 

 in a disproportionate outlay of time and 

 money during weekly visits to the neighbour- 

 ing town, when the corn-exchange and the 

 cattle market, the substantial " ordinary " 

 and the generous treating of friends afford 

 a welcome change from the monotonous 

 existence of a solitary farmstead. 



In matters of food, clothing and furniture, 



